Speaking to Lusa news agency, the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality revealed that by the end of September, 19 people had been killed in the context of domestic violence, 14 women and five men.

This was just one death less than in the same period last year, but far from the 27 people murdered in the first nine months of 2019, of which 19 were women, seven were men and there was even one child.

“These are brutal numbers. These are numbers that must continue to worry us”, underlined the secretary of State.

With regard to the measures applied to aggressors, Rosa Monteiro added that, analysing since 2019, it is possible to see that "there has been a growing evolution of the measures applied", from coercive measures with removal, to effective prison sentences, including “practices by the justice system that prevent revictimisation”.

Official data shows that, by the end of the third quarter of this year, there were 1,140 people arrested for the crime of domestic violence.